A Life Cut Short
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: Nick and Sara get a heartbreaking case, will they keep their composure or will they let their emotions get the best of them. Nick and Sara are not in a relationship, they are simply working a case together!
1. Chapter 1

A Life Cut Short

"Nick and Sara you have a 419 on Simmons Avenue." Catherine Willows, the supervisor for the grave shift CSI team said.

"Another 419 in that area, that is the third one this month." Sara said.

"Yeah it's a rough area." Catherine said.

"Where's Ray and Greg again?" Nick asked.

"Greg is on vacation and Ray called in sick." Catherine said.

Nick nodded.

"What case are you working on tonight?" Sara asked her boss.

"Well unfortunately I get to spend my night working on paperwork, so unless we get another assignment if you need me I'll be in my office." She replied.

"What do you know about our case so far?" Nick asked.

"Not much, just that it's a 419 and the victim is a female." Catherine replied looking at the sheet in her hands.

She handed it to Nick and said "Good luck" as she walked out of the conference room and down the hall to her office.

Sara looked at Nick "want me to drive?" She asked.

"Let's roll" Nick answered and the two of them headed to their crime scene.

When they arrived there were officers waiting for them, they had an area taped off.

"What have we got?" Nick asked one of the officers.

"It isn't good." One of the officers replied, nodding his head toward some bushes.

Nick and Sara exchanged glances. They walked up to the bushes and lying in the bushes they saw the body of a very young child. Nick estimated the child was about 5 years old. The little girl was lifeless but if you didn't know better you would think she was sleeping. She was dressed in ratty, torn clothing and her left shoe had a hole in it. Her hair looked as if it hadn't been combed in a month, although that could be because of being in the bushes. Despite all of that the two CSI'S noticed how adorable the child was. She had fair skin with light, short blonde hair. They saw no visible signs of trauma at least not the front of her but they couldn't move her until a coroner arrived.

"Oh man this is awful." Nick said looking at Sara.

"Yeah in our line of work you never want to see a child." She replied regretfully.

The coroner David Phillips arrived. "Sorry I'm late guys." He said.

"No problem Super Dave." Nick said greeting his colleague. David took the little girls' liver temperature.

"Based on her liver temp I would say she has been dead less than 24 hours." He said.

"Help me roll her David." Nick said.

He did and Nick didn't see any evidence of trauma on the back of her body either.

"Sara, go see if you can find out who called it in, I'll stay here and examine her body some more as well as the area surrounding the body." Nick told her.

"You got it." Sara said.

She walked off to go talk to the officers.

Nick found a hair on the child's shirt, he knew right away it didn't belong to the little girl, the hair was way to long. It was however the same color as their tiny victim. He snapped a couple of pictures and then got out his tweezers, grabbed the hair and put it in a bag marked evidence. He also found a fiber he couldn't identify on the corner of the little girl's lips. He repeated the process of taking pictures and then bagging the evidence for transfer back to the lab. The body was transported to the lab for autopsy but Nick decided to stay at the scene a little longer to see if he could find anything else that would be useful.

Sara walked back over to him.

"Did you find anything out?" He asked her.

"Yeah, those two ladies called it in." She said nodding towards two women.

Nick glanced at the women "hookers?" He asked noticing their skimpy clothing.

"Yeah and I talked to them, they say they had nothing to do with the little's girls' death, they claimed they did the right thing by calling us, but that is all they will admit too."

Then she asked. "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah I found a hair on our victim's shirt that doesn't belong to her as well as a fiber of some kind on her corner of her lips." Nick replied.

The CSI'S stayed at the scene a little while longer looking for more evidence but didn't find anything else that could help them so they headed back to the lab.

Once they got back to the lab Sara decided to search through the missing children's database, she hoped that would help identify the little girl.

Nick dropped off the hair to Mandy in DNA, the fiber to Hodges in the trace lab and then headed to the morgue to see what Doc Robbins could tell him. By the time Nick got to the morgue Doc Robbins had already completed the autopsy.

"Hey Doc, what can you tell me?" Nick asked walking in.

"Hey Nick, I have a COD for you." He replied.

"Yeah, that's good, what is it?" Nick asked.

"Suffocation." Doc Robbins replied.

"That makes some sense because I had found a fiber I couldn't identify on her lips, maybe it's from a blanket or pillow of some kind that was used to suffocate her." Nick said.

"Maybe." Doc Robbins agreed.

"Was there any evidence of sexual abuse?" Nick asked.

"No. I hope that makes you feel a little better" He replied.

"It doesn't, but thanks for trying. This little girl was left in bushes like she was trash, nothing would make me feel better except finding the monster responsible for this" Nick said. Then added "What else can you tell me?"

"I took some of her blood and sent it to TOX to see if there are any drugs in her system." Doc Robbins said.

"Thanks Doc, do you have anything else for me?" Nick asked.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't." Doc Robbins said shaking his head sadly.

"That's alright, you were a big help." Nick assured him as he left the morgue.

Nick then wandered down the hall to find Sara. He found her still slumped over a computer pouring over a missing children's database.

"Hey Sara." He greeted.

"Hey Nick, was Doc Robbins any help?" She asked. "Yeah, her COD is suffocation and there were no signs of sexual abuse. He sent some of her blood to TOX." Nick said, filling her in on what he had learned.

"Are you having any luck?" He asked.

"No" Sara said glumly.

"That's horrible, nobody even reported this poor little girl missing." Nick said shaking his head sadly.

"Yes it is, what kind of a parent doesn't even report their child missing?" Sara said growing angry.

"One with secrets." Nick replied.


	2. Chapter 2

A Life Cut Short

Chapter 2

Nick and Sara were in the break room having a much needed cup of coffee. They had crime scene photos spread out on the table in front of them. It had been nearly 3 hours since Nick had spoke to Doc Robbins and still the little girl remained unidentified and they had no new leads to help track down her killer. Nick and Sara were beyond frustrated.

"Want some more coffee?" Sara asked standing up.

"I want to solve this case." Nick muttered.

Sara grabbed Nick's cup anyway and walked over to the coffee pot and poured two more cups. She brought them back to the table and set them down.

"Thanks" Nick said as he took a sip.

"What should we do now? We are at a dead end." He said.

"Let's go back through what we know." Sara said.

"Alright sounds like a good idea."

"We have a dead little girl that was found in bushes in a very bad area of the city. We have not identified her and she was not reported missing. Her clothing suggests that she comes from a very poor family possibly even homeless. There was a hair on her clothing that did not belong to her as well as a fiber found on her lips that could not be indentified. There were no signs of sexual abuse." She took a breath and then said "Now where does that all lead us?"

"Up the crick without a paddle." Nick said looking dismayed.

"I agree it sure doesn't give us a lot to go on." Sara said shaking her head.

Nick's cell phone vibrated in his pocket, letting him know he had a text message.

He glanced at the message "Tox came back, no drugs were found in her system." He said.

Sara nodded.

A few minutes later Nick's cell phone rang. "It's Mandy." He said as he glanced at the caller's name.

"Mandy please tell me you have something we can use." He said.

He was so desperate he did not even say hello first.

"I do, meet me in the DNA lab." She told him.

Nick quickly got up and gathered all the crime scene pictures

"Come on, Mandy has something for us." He said.

They quickly went to the DNA lab.

"I got some DNA off the hair you found on your victims clothing and I got a match."

"Who is it?" Sara asked eagerly.

"The DNA belongs to a Debbie Hobbs, she's in the system for several petty thefts." Mandy said. "What's her last address that was listed?" Nick asked.

"1281 Darkner Road." Mandy said.

"That's right around the corner from Simmons Avenue." Nick said, he could feel his adrenaline kick in, this was the first promising lead they had gotten.

"Come on Sara, I say we pay Ms. Hobbs a visit."

"Right behind you." Sara said.

Both of the CSI'S thanked Mandy and then hurriedly left the lab.

While walking briskly down the hallway Nick heard his name being called. He turned around and saw Hodges motioning for him to come over towards him. Nick sighed but he and Sara both went to see what Hodges wanted.

"I got results on your mystery fiber." Hodges said.

"Yeah, what is it from?" Nick asked.

"It's from a throw pillow."

Nick again felt his adrenaline rise, his theory about the little girl being suffocated by a pillow was looking promising.

"Thanks Hodges." Nick said as he and Sara continued down the hallway to the parking garage.

When they got to 1281 Darkner Road they immediately noticed the house. It was a disaster on the outside, the lawn looked like it had not been mowed for months, the siding was coming off the house and there were bags upon bags of garbage in the front yard.

Nick rang the doorbell.

A woman answered "Yes may I help you?" She said.

"Hi, I'm Nick Stokes and this is my colleague Sara Sidle, we are with the Vegas Crime Lab, and we are looking for Debbie Hobbs."

"I'm Debbie Hobbs" the woman answered.

"May we come in, we would like to ask you a few questions?" Nick said.

The woman let them in and led them into the kitchen.

"Have a seat." She said.

Nick and Sara sat down.

"Ma'am do you recognize this little girl?" Nick asked, showing her a picture of the little girl.

"Yes, that's my daughter Elise." She said.

Nick took a deep breath

"Ma'am I am very sorry to have to tell you this but Elise was found dead tonight."

Instead of bursting into tears or getting hysterical the woman looked almost stone faced.

Obviously that was not the reaction the CSI'S were expecting.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" Sara asked.

The woman nodded yes and she was still as calm as could be.

"Mommy who are they?" a little voice asked.

The three adults looked up and saw a little boy standing there.

"Jayden go back to bed." Debbie instructed and without another word the little boy turned around and wandered out of eyesight.

After the little boy was gone Sara said "Ma'am your daughter was not in any missing person's database, why didn't you report her missing?"

"I didn't report her missing because she was never missing."


	3. Chapter 3

A Life Cut Short

Chapter 3

"If she was never missing then please explain to me how she wound up dead in the bushes." Nick said trying very hard not to lose his temper.

He and Sara were sitting next to each other in the interrogation room at the crime lab and Debbie Hobbs was sitting across from them and true to form she was emotionless.

"I did it." She said sounding as if she confessed to taking the last brownie at a family gathering instead of just admitting to killing her daughter.

"You did what?" Nick asked, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.

"I killed her." She said simply.

"How?" Nick demanded.

"She was asleep on the couch, and I put the pillow over her face and held it there until she could no longer breathe." Not one single tear slid down the woman's face.

It took every ounce of strength both CSI'S had to not reach over the table and cold cock the woman.

"Why, why would any mother do that to their innocent child?" Sara asked her, Sara's voice showed much more emotion then the child's own mother's did.

"Did you see my house? The neighborhood I live in, I work two jobs, and I still struggle to put food on the table, I can't afford two children, hell I can barely afford to support myself."

"So you thought the best option was to kill your own child?" Nick asked, he was almost in shock.

"What other option did I have?" Debbie asked Nick angrily.

"Um, how about adoption, foster care, send her to a relative who could love and care for her, you could have dropped her off at the hospital or a firehouse and walked away with no questions asked, _anything _would have been better then what you did, and I don't care what lame reasons you give us, there is absolutely no excuse for what you did."

Debbie shrugged "I didn't think about those options I guess." She said coldly.

Nick and Sara looked at each other in shock, they have dealt with some sick and cruel people during their career but this woman had to be one of the worst they had ever seen, she very well might even top the list.

"Why did you kill your daughter and not your son?" Sara asked.

"Well I didn't want to be all alone so I wanted to keep one." She said flatly.

"How did you choose which one to kill?" Nick asked squinting at her coldly.

"I flipped a coin, Elise lost." She stated as if that was the most natural thing in the world.

Nick felt like he was going to vomit, he could no longer stand to be in the same room with this monster. He got up and left the room without so much as one last glance towards Debbie.

Sara sighed as she watched her friend leave the room, she knew this had been a hard case for Nick and she didn't blame him because it had been hard on her as well.

"One last thing, why did you put Elise in the bushes?" Sara asked. If looks could kill Debbie would have dropped dead right there from the icy glare Sara gave her.

"I figured if I could hide her well enough I might get away with it. I guess I didn't do a good enough job."

That was Sara's breaking point, she stood up "get her out of here." She told the officer in the corner of the room.

Sara watched as the officer led her away in handcuffs.

Sara then went to the locker room, she found Nick sitting on the bench staring blankly at his locker.

"Nick, you ok?" She asked going over and sitting next to him.

"Sara, sometimes I hate this job." Nick told her without looking at her.

"Me too." Sara said.

"Listen Nick, why don't we go out for a beer, my treat, it'll help both of us blow off some steam." She said.

"No thanks, I just want to go home, take a shower and go to sleep. But rein check alright?" He said.

She smiled at him "Sure."

Nick smiled at her as he left the locker room.

He went home, took a nice hot shower and fell into a much needed deep sleep.

The End!


End file.
